Computers and computing have always divided the world of users into two classes: the knowledgeable “high priests” who know how to use computers in complex ways, to shape programs and enable behaviors that are valuable and rich; and the novice users, who are at their mercy, denied easy or cheap access to knowledge or information or the education to make computers serve their needs well. However, major breakthroughs in computing have occurred when technology has broken down some of these barriers to access.
In the world of the mainframe, computers were too expensive for all but the largest businesses to afford. The advent of mini-computers, and then personal computers (PCs), broke down the cost barrier and made computers available to small businesses and individuals.
In the 1980's, programmers struggled to build graphical user interface (GUI) applications, and without rich and consistent GUIs, were unable to build valuable applications for PC users. The Visual Basic revolution and the use of controls and event-based GUI construction enabled a whole army of application developers who could easily build rich applications. This also established a virtuous cycle with many more end-users who could exploit these applications.
In the 1990's, end-users struggled to overcome a lack of access to information. The growth of the Internet and the web transformed this space, making almost all valuable information accessible to anyone with a browser. However, there are still significant barriers to overcome.
Computing is not personal. There is very little about a PC that is truly “personal”. The data on the local disk is personal. However, the behavior of the machine (what it does on behalf of the user) is close to identical across millions of users. Despite owning an amazingly powerful general purpose computer, the average user treats it as a static tool, useful as a communication end-point, useful as a search entry-point, useful to execute some canned mass-market applications, but otherwise incapable of any “personal computing” in the true sense of the word. The personalization capabilities available in current applications just scratch the surface of what is possible and desirable.
Computing is manual. Consider the daily routine of most typical computer end-users. The PC gathers information, reacts to communications, makes decisions and acts upon them-initiates or responds to communications, organizes information, buys and sells goods, travel, etc. Computers have improved communication between people, and have improved access to information. However, PCs have done little to relieve the end-user's responsibility to make decisions and act upon them at the right time. In the business world, there are decision support systems for major organizational decisions. Still software does not help the average PC user in the many everyday, yet important and personal decisions.
Computing is not contextual. Computer software typically provides optional settings that are rather static and unrelated to the actual context of the user (e.g., “Why should I have the same set of messaging buddies at work and at home?”). Thus, users are still in the “pre-industrial age” of software by being increasingly trapped in the tyranny of manual information processing-spending hours every day sifting, sorting, searching, and reacting to e-mail, documents and other personal data.
End-user software should be personalized, aware of the needs and preferences of the end-user, acting specifically in a manner guided by those needs and by the user context. Further, computer systems and software should provide every end-user with a personal executive assistant who works 24 hours a day gathering and sifting information of interest to the end-user, and reacting to that information.
The most valuable class of end-user computing activity deals with information flows and search, such as ensuring the end-user sees relevant information (e.g., “Tell me if there is a school closing due to bad weather.”), enhancing person-to-person communication with personalized behavior (e.g., “If I'm out of the office when my wife calls, let her know when I'll be back.”), ensuring important information is not lost (e.g., “If there's an urgent e-mail, make sure it gets forwarded to me on my mobile device.”), and automating the management of information (e.g., “As new photographs arrive, place them in the right folders and shares based on their timestamp, GPS location, and any relevant calendar entries.”). Moreover, interaction with the computer should provide end-user programmable enhancements in a user-friendly manner. For example, end-user programmed customizations should be available at a platform level whereby the customizations can be accessed in any application. Thus, a user experience can be more customized to specific end-user preferences and the like.
The way to accomplish this is to provide mechanisms by which an end-user can “program” (e.g., customize) the behavior of the computer. However, traditional programming languages are clearly not the answer, in that the end-user is not a trained developer. What is needed is an improved mechanism that allows an end-user to personalize applications. To this end, the file store explorer and/or other application can provide a user with rich data views.